The Current Evolution of Ancient Religious Institutions

[Fake Messiah]

Myth of the Flat Earth

The myth of the flat Earth, or the flat-Earth error, is a modern historical misconception that European scholars and educated people during the Middle Ages believed the Earth to be flat.

Maybe but the article is full of errors, like it claims that the myth came from an ideological setting created by struggles over biological evolution, and then it claims that its proponent was Washington Irving, but Irving died in the year that "Origins of Species" was published. So if it came from anything it was from the rivalry between Catholics and Protestants who ridiculed Catholics as stupid (Irving was also a protestant).

[Anomalocaris]

The Catholic Church today is still the same Church that refused the findings of Galileo, insisted that the earth was flat, promoted a geo-centric / heliocentric view of the universe, refuted Darwinism and believed that the earth was 5500 years old etc.
 
  Today the church seems to be embracing all of these scientific theories as being a part of “the Divine Plan”.
 
   Another issue that is being resolved in a very humane manner is the issue of non-heterosexuals within the religious institutions. Now they are even giving permission to priests to baptize the children of same-sex couples and seems to be encouraging their participation in various religious ceremonies.
 
https://www.yahoo.com/news/vatican-allow...43215.html
 
This reminds me of the character of Eric Effiong in the final episode of the UK series called “Sex Education”. Since about 95% of ordinary people believe in the Divine in one way or another, it doesn’t seem very humane to exclude some people because of their sexual tendencies and/or choices.

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[Anomalocaris]

The Catholic Church today is still the same Church that refused the findings of Galileo, insisted that the earth was flat, promoted a geo-centric / heliocentric view of the universe, refuted Darwinism and believed that the earth was 5500 years old etc.
 
  Today the church seems to be embracing all of these scientific theories as being a part of “the Divine Plan”.
 
   Another issue that is being resolved in a very humane manner is the issue of non-heterosexuals within the religious institutions. Now they are even giving permission to priests to baptize the children of same-sex couples and seems to be encouraging their participation in various religious ceremonies.
 
https://www.yahoo.com/news/vatican-allow...43215.html
 
This reminds me of the character of Eric Effiong in the final episode of the UK series called “Sex Education”. Since about 95% of ordinary people believe in the Divine in one way or another, it doesn’t seem very humane to exclude some people because of their sexual tendencies and/or choices.

the problem with religious institutions is they exist for the purpose of allowing a few to rule over the many by exploiting ignorance and cognitive defects common in humans and hoisting upon the gullible assertions supportive of the authority of the few built upon fraudulent stories of knowledge and revelation.     In this no matter how they evolve they can not change because changing would nullify the central reason for existence of religious institutions.

RCC opposition to heliocentric nature of solar system or evolutionary nature of life on earth would be irrelevant if the livehoof and influence of its priesthood didn’t also depend upon hoisting upon the gullible the racket of “there is no salvation outside the church” built upon the implicitly and inescapably misanthropic notion of humanity needing the kind of salvation christianity peddles. .

[Istvan]

Myth of the Flat Earth

The myth of the flat Earth, or the flat-Earth error, is a modern historical misconception that European scholars and educated people during the Middle Ages believed the Earth to be flat.

It's still extremely popular in the atheist blogosphere. A few years back, Neil DeGrasse Tyson (playing master of the obvious comme d'habitude) took some rapper to task over comments about the flat Earth, pointing out that "people haven't believed that for hundreds of years."

I'm not claiming every mud farmer in medieval Europe understood the spherical shape of planet Earth, but if even sailors and mountaineers were in on it, it's not like the knowledge was some sort of academic secret.

[Leonardo17]

The Catholic Church today is still the same Church that refused the findings of Galileo, insisted that the earth was flat, promoted a geo-centric / heliocentric view of the universe, refuted Darwinism and believed that the earth was 5500 years old etc.
 
  Today the church seems to be embracing all of these scientific theories as being a part of “the Divine Plan”.
 
   Another issue that is being resolved in a very humane manner is the issue of non-heterosexuals within the religious institutions. Now they are even giving permission to priests to baptize the children of same-sex couples and seems to be encouraging their participation in various religious ceremonies.
 
https://www.yahoo.com/news/vatican-allow...43215.html
 
This reminds me of the character of Eric Effiong in the final episode of the UK series called “Sex Education”. Since about 95% of ordinary people believe in the Divine in one way or another, it doesn’t seem very humane to exclude some people because of their sexual tendencies and/or choices.

The Catholic Church never taught that the world was flat.

   Before Columbus, the idea in Europe was that you would fall from the edge of the world if you went too far on the map.
   Yet by observing the movements of ships on the Horizon (When they come you see the prow, than the top of the ship, than the whole ship) some people started to argue that they could get to India (the richest nation on earth at the time) through the Atlantic Ocean.
   In “The Conquest of paradise” (1992) you can see Columbus (Gerard Depardieu) having this discussion with the clergy

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Foxaer: I think it was Aristotle. In his theory everything falls from top to bottom. So the earth is seen as a disc and everything is revolving around the earth in a very stable geocentric model.

 
Scientists of the enlightenment were seen as heretics, although this theory of Aristotle belonged to a “Pagan” philosopher of ancient times.

[Anomalocaris]

aristotle was the one who pointed out the shape of earth’s shadow on the moon during lunar eclipse shows the earth was a sphere.

He was considered a virtuous pagan and his geocentric cosomogy of spheres and his notion of physics were considered inerrant by the RCC, even though Arab scholars have already anticipated parts of newtonian mechanics by the 11th century.

[Belacqua]

his notion of physics were considered inerrant by the RCC

The Oxford Calculators, a group of theologians in the 14th century, showed that several of Aristotle's beliefs about physics were incorrect. They used a combination of empirical experiment and math. 

They were burned at the stake for doing this.

No, sorry. They were not burned at the stake. They had long and successful careers.

[Belacqua]

The Catholic Church never taught that the world was flat.

   Before Columbus, the idea in Europe was that you would fall from the edge of the world if you went too far on the map.
   Yet by observing the movements of ships on the Horizon (When they come you see the prow, than the top of the ship, than the whole ship) some people started to argue that they could get to India (the richest nation on earth at the time) through the Atlantic Ocean.
   In “The Conquest of paradise” (1992) you can see Columbus (Gerard Depardieu) having this discussion with the clergy

---

Foxaer: I think it was Aristotle. In his theory everything falls from top to bottom. So the earth is seen as a disc and everything is revolving around the earth in a very stable geocentric model.

 
Scientists of the enlightenment were seen as heretics, although this theory of Aristotle belonged to a “Pagan” philosopher of ancient times.

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Link removed.

[Anomalocaris]

his notion of physics were considered inerrant by the RCC

The Oxford Calculators, a group of theologians in the 14th century, showed that several of Aristotle's beliefs about physics were incorrect. They used a combination of empirical experiment and math. 

They were burned at the stake for doing this.

No, sorry. They were not burned at the stake. They had long and successful careers.

  seriously?   your venom spitting retort in defense of that murderous manipulative self serving cult amounts to “it didn’t reward every act of heterodoxy with burning at the stake when it had the power to do so?”

[The Grand Nudger]

Exactly so, and remember, it's not because the church thought that the scientists they did fuck with were wrong, they knew they weren't. They did all of that shit because they worried it would hurt the brand and cost them authority, not out of genuine belief.

-this makes it better, somehow. Silly atheists.